So you get Attack and Decay controls each for modulator and carrier plus LFO Rate and Depth together with an ‘Algrtm’ (algorithm select) rotary. The beauty is that the front panel features the main parameters for these as controls including Envelope Generators. Volca FM has six of these with up to 32 combinations (algorithms).
Both types are generated by operators the fundamental by a ‘carrier’ operator, the modulating ones by ‘modulators’. So FM is based on a fundamental waveform modulated by other waveforms to produce sounds. Volca FM (like reface DX) tries to bring FM to the masses. It was a keyboard that had millions of fans but only a few (notably Brian Eno) could get to the bottom of it. I say easy but what I mean is easier than the notoriously difficult-to-get-your-head-around synthesis employed on the DX7, surely the most famous FM synth of all time. We said ‘there’s more creativity to be had here than on the other Volcas (and especially with the other Volcas) and we like the nod back to happier, simpler sampling times, as under those limitations creativity blossomed!’ So to Volca FM and the move away from analogue continues, albeit differently… Easy FM?Īs with the Yamaha reface DX keyboard that I reviewed in October last year, Korg is promising a kind of easy FM (Frequency Modulation) synthesis with Volca FM. That is a more digital affair offering sampling as its raison d’etre and very good it is too. We loved these Beats, Keys and Bass units– still do in fact – and Korg later added Volca Sample which I looked at in early 2015.
Yet there was Korg with three Volca synths that recreated all of the fun of analogue, much of the sound (albeit from a small speaker), the playability and tweakability, and in boxes that cost a shade over a hundred quid each.